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SEO Your Way To The Top!

The first to win a race, the first to finish an exam, the first to pass with flying colors?

Growing up, I was just like you, wanting to be first in line because well, I always felt special and significant. Even now that I’m doing business online, I still crave to be the first.

Today, we’re going to talk about being first among many ecommerce websites around. Our topic for today is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how it can help you boost your ecommerce sales. But first, I believe discussing SEO should be in order before we delve deeper into the topic.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is a tool that helps search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc.) find and rank your website every time someone searches for a term related to you online.

Say for instance you typed the keyword phrase “best books in Singapore”. Those websites that will fall on the first page of the hit list have better chances of getting more website views and clicks— which is every online marketer’s dream come true.

How do search engines work?

Humans don’t run search engines. In fact, they are managed by software (as for Google, they are known as Googlebot). These bots assess your website’s ranking by relying heavily on text (thus, the use of keywords).

Here are three steps search engines go through every time you hit on the Search button:

Crawl- The first step is for crawlers to visit your website. Keep in mind that there are billions of websites now and it may take even two months before crawlers reach yours.

Index- Think of this step as them having your website stored in a database— a library where you’ll be sectioned accordingly based on keywords.

Process- When someone hits Search, the relevance of your page will be calculated and will be determined which part of the hit list you will be.

How do you take SEO to your advantage?

Now that I’ve fore grounded you enough, it’s time you learn how to make use of SEO wisely and be guaranteed of a good placement for your website. If you’re lucky and efficient enough, you’ll be counting on more sales and better profit in no time.

1. Keep Content as King.

Before you even start with the technical side of search engine optimization, you need to manage your content first. Your relevance will easily be measured by how creative, thought-provoking and useful your content is. So work on this first above all else.

2. Check yourself regularly.

It’s also good to know where your website currently stands. Tools like Google Toolbar will update you about the number of visitors in your site, the current trending keywords and your search standing.

3. Use your keywords wisely.

It’s your keywords that will put your content in a very good rank. That’s why you need to:

Place and incorporate them into the content carefully.

Put them in the title tag, URL’s, image labels, etc.

Regulate the repetition.

Use keywords as anchor text. This allows spiders to easily spot and know what the link-to page is about. If you opt to type in “Click here”, then don’t expect to be the first.

Keep in mind that it’s mainly text that the software regards as relevant and worthy to be on top. If you choose to bombard yours with mismanaged domain names filled with numbers, then good luck to you.

5. Link well.

Keep your pages alive by linking very well. Have internal links to keep your viewers tied into your website, constantly allow them to see just how relevant your information is. Moreover, link to other sites for them to see that you can strategically spread your website anywhere.

6. Use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

Your website needs to be intertwined with the most popular social networking sites. We all know just how influential and powerful information is when posted, tweeted or pinned. So distribute and allow search engines to see just how relevant your content is.

7. Consider a site map as secret weapon.

In order for bots to index your website easily, you need a site map that consist all of your main topics and important pages. This is especially beneficial for ecommerce sites that are large. Using site map as a summary can just be your secret weapon.

One thing you should never forget about SEO is that humans aren’t primarily the ones assessing your website. While the what of your website should be for your market, let the how be understood well by the software.

So if you’re on who has the eye on the prize, consider the tips above for you to be nothing short of first.